Martin Kampmann, Dana White relieved 'Hitman' avoided UFC 139 bullet

As it turns out, Danish welterweight Martin Kampmann (18-5 MMA, 9-4 UFC) wasn’t the only one who couldn’t believe judges were split on his UFC 139 performance against Rick Story.

“Right before we walked in here, I said, ‘Thank God. Congratulations. You finally pulled one out,'” UFC president Dana White said at Saturday’s UFC 139 post-event press conference.

“He’s had some tight fights – really tough fights that go right down to the wire – and was on the wrong side of the scoring.”

Indeed, Kampmann has been involved in several close calls as of late, dropping a contentious unanimous decision to Diego Sanchez in a bloody March 2011 affair, as well as a controversial split decision to Jake Shields at UFC 121 in October 2010.

At this past Saturday’s UFC 139 event, which took place at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., Kampmann weathered an early storm from “The Horror” Story before settling into a groove and controlling the latter stages of the fight. For most in attendance, the bout seemed to clearly favor Kampmann at the end of 15 minutes, but cageside judges didn’t exactly agree, and it was Story’s name who was read first when Bruce Buffer took the mic.

“I just thought, ‘Not again,'” Kampmann admitted. “I felt confident I won that fight, but I felt confident I won my last fight, too.”

Fortunately, the other two judges rendered what seemed the proper verdict, and Kampmann was awarded the split-decision win.

“I thought I was about to get screwed again,” Kampmann said. “But I’m happy I got the win.”

The bout didn’t come without a price. As he often has in his UFC career, “Hitman” suffered a few cuts during the bout that left him a few pints short on plasma. Nevertheless, Kampmann said he was fine after the bout, save for a few technical mistakes he’ll look to correct when he returns to training at Xtreme Couture.

“I cut fairly easy, so it sucks,” Kampmann said. “I just Vaselined up. … I got stitched up pretty good afterward. Sometimes I need to get punched a little bit, eat too many punches and taste my blood a little bit.

“The second round I felt good, but the first round I was not sticking to the gameplan. I was going in there sloppy and slow and swinging punches with him. That was not what we wanted to do. But the second round, I felt good. I came out sharper.”

Kampmann is now just 1-2 in his past three fights, but he’s hardly on thin ice when it comes to his UFC future. His battles with Sanchez and Shields were both competitive and controversial, and his win over Story was another example of how is often-under-appreciated wrestling skills are developing just as rapidly as his striking.

This time, however, he’s got a win bonus, as well.

“It was a big win for him,” White said. “He’s back.”

For complete coverage of UFC 139, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
(Pictured: Martin Kampmann)

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